Ennius

By courtesy of Editions Delga (Paris), I am pleased to offer  to the public two chapters of a French partial translation that is actually in process, from "I classici nella storia della letteratura latina" (1994), by Luciano Canfora and Renata Roncali. The whole French volume's title will be "Politique et littérature dans la Rome ancienne depuis les origines jusqu'à Augustin" and will include several chapters by Luciano Canfora. The present file includes the introductory chapter of the book, "Rome, cité grecque", and the chapter on "Ennius et son entourage", introducing Ennius life and works.

Ennius’ Scipio is a praetexta: Enn. var. 14 (Scipio VIII) V.2 = Scipio IV
Russo has to be read as dact6 or as an4 + an. The testimony of Hraban. Maur. Excerptio de arte grammatica Prisciani, PL 11, p. 670 B is taken into consideration. Ennius also celebrates Scipio’s victory against Hannibal in the saturae (cf. Enn. sat. 10s. V.2 = VI Russo); Enn. var. 6-8 V.2 probably are fragments of Scipio’s ‘last speech’ in Rome (187 or 184 BC), as it is reported in the Annals. Testimonies on this famous speech in Polybius, Cicero, Livy, and Gellius are newly discussed.

This article examines three sections of the proem to Lucretius' De rerum natura: the so-called hymn to Venus (Lucr. 1.1-43), the praise of Epicurus (1.62-79), and the Iphigenia passage (1.80-101). The article's goal is to show that distinct, interconnected political echoes are perceptible in these three sections of Lucretius' proem, and that Lucretius intertwines his philosophical teaching with Roman political culture in such a way as to make his Epicurean message more acceptable to Roman audiences. The article demonstrates Lucretius' interaction with the use of myth in political language in Rome in the 60s and 50s bce. It analyzes the relevance of the Mithridatic wars to Roman discussions of imperialism and Lucretius' exploitation of this conflict's iconic status. This article suggests that Memmius' political action in the 60s may have made him a particularly suitable addressee for Lucretius' poem. It also explores the implications of this new reading of the proem for the date of Lucretius' De rerum natura.

This article discusses the following issues: the true title of Ennius’ work known as Euhemerus Sacra historia, the potential meaning of this title and of the title of Euhemerus’ work Ἱερὰ ἀναγραφή, the relationship between the Greek title and his Latin translation by Ennius, the structure and the interpretation of a fragment from Euhemerus (54 W. = Var. 64-82 V.2) of particular relevance for establishing the Ennian title, the meaning of a much-disputed phrase in that fragment (sacra scriptio), the text of a passage from Lactantius’ Epitome (13, 3), the relationship between the Ennian titles Sacra historia and Annales.

Lorsque Quintus Ennius rédige ses Annales, entre 179 et 168 av. J.-C. environ, Rome est en pleine expansion, déjà maîtresse de la Méditerranée occidentale et occupée à prendre le contrôle de la Grèce et de la Macédoine. En revanche, sur le plan littéraire, et historiographique en particulier, elle n’en est qu’à ses balbutiements. Quelques précurseurs (Livius Andronicus et Naevius en particulier) avaient donné aux Romains leurs premières épopées, recourant à l’antique vers saturnien. D’autre part, quelques patriciens découvrant sur le tard, au contact du monde hellénistique, la nécessité de conserver trace de l’histoire de leur cité, avaient livré les premières Annales, écrites en prose et en langue grecque. Ennius, poète ambitieux originaire de Rudies (Italie du Sud), mais bien introduit dans les cénacles de la plus haute aristocratie romaine, décide de donner à l’Vrbs son premier grand chef-d’œuvre de langue latine, une épopée en dix-huit livres retraçant l’histoire de la Ville depuis ses origines jusqu’aux événements les plus récents. Il introduit à cette occasion l’hexamètre dactylique, rencontre un immense succès auprès des Romains, et restera insurpassé jusqu’à la création de l’Énéide de Virgile.

(engl. version below)
Unter den verschiedenen Formen, literarische Texte zu sammeln und zu erschließen, zählt deren Gruppierung zu einem Œuvre mit Sicherheit zu den gängigsten: Das Œuvre als Summe aller Werke eines bestimmten Autors wird dabei oft an scheinbar objektivierbaren Kriterien wie Werkbestand (Gesamtwerk) oder Autorbiographie (Spätwerk, Lebenswerk) gemessen und gleichsam als selbstverständlich betrachtet. Werkpolitik in der Antike fragt demgegenüber nach den Voraussetzungen (und ebenso nach den Auswirkungen) der Orientierung am Œuvre. Die lateinische Literatur der späten Republik und des augusteischen Prinzipats erweist sich für die Genese eines emphatischen Begriffes des auktorialen Corpus als formativ: Die Umwälzungen im literarischen Betrieb dieser Epoche, nicht zuletzt die Gründung öffentlicher Bibliotheken, bedingten bei Autoren, Kritikern und Lesern eine erhöhte Aufmerksamkeit für die Begründung von Werkzusammenhängen, welche die Idee des Œuvres nachhaltig prägte. In vier Studien zu Cicero, Vergil, Horaz und Ovid wird nachgezeichnet, wie sowohl innerhalb der literarischen Werke selbst wie in deren Rezeption bestimmte Vorstellungen von Lebens- und Gesamtwerk Gestalt annehmen konnten.



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Of the various forms of collecting and cataloguing literary texts, classification as part of an authorial œuvre is one of the most common. The notion of the œuvre is often legitimised with regard to seemingly objective criteria, such as the extent or chronology of an author’s production, and its implications are thus downplayed and glossed over. By contrast, the present study explores the specific preconditions (and repercussions) of privileged status accorded to the idea of the authorial corpus. It argues that Late Republican and Augustan Latin literature is an especially momentous time in the history of the literary œuvre. The significant changes in literary culture that this period witnessed, not least the establishment of public libraries in Rome, led to an increasing awareness of and attention to the formation of textual corpora among literary practitioners, critics and readers, which has in turn had a formative influence on the idea of the authorial corpus. In four case studies, on Cicero, Virgil, Horace, and Ovid, the book highlights the different ways in which the œuvre is envisaged and formed, both within the literary works themselves and in their reception.

Testo ampliato, riveduto e corredato di note bibliografiche di una conferenza tenuta presso la fondazione ‘Umberto Mastroianni’ di Arpino (convegno ‘Cicerone e il diritto di cittadinanza’, 16 aprile 2018). Si indaga sulle relazioni esistenti tra la poesia e la celebrazione delle res gestae in Cicerone, rivedendo in modo critico la teoria secondo la quale Cicerone si sarebbe cimentato nell’epos auto-elogiativo latino a seguito della ‘delusione’ ricevuta da Archia, che non volle scrivere un poema in greco sui fatti del suo consolato. L’idea ciceroniana di una differenza tra gli ambiti culturali, pur complementari, della poesia greca e di quella latina (Archia è grande poeta greco, cioè cittadino del mondo e quindi di Roma), il desiderio di aemulatio nei confronti di Ennio, la concezione di un ideale di uomo di Stato che si fonda su valori morali, culturali, educativi, letterari prima ancora che su virtù militari sono elementi che aiutano a definire un quadro molto più complesso e mosso dei motivi per i quali l’Arpinate si cimentò nel De consulatu meo e nelle altre opere epiche.

The analysis of the prosopopoeia of Appius Claudius Caecus contained in Cicero's 'Pro Caelio' (33-34) allows to connect it with the famous speech of Appius Claudius against peace with Pyrrhus testified by Ennius and Cicero himself. The speech is also part of the long controversy of Cicero against the tribune Clodius and can be linked to other Cicero's speeches and be related it to the literary and historical-political tradition of the Clodii

In his Historiae adversus paganos Orosius records the episode of the Vestal Minucia who was buried alive in 337 B.C. after committing incestum (hist. 3, 9, 5). In ms. Sangallensis 621 of Orosius the St. Gall monk Ekkehart IV (XI sec.) added as an interlinear gloss to that passage (f. 108) a verse of Ennius’ Annales, not elsewhere known (ann. 158 Sk.), and the overwritten words (in campo qui nunc sceleratus vocatur) can be read as an almost complete hexameter. In this paper I suggest that at hist. 3.9.5 Orosius is quoting an otherwise unknown verse of Ennius’ Annales concerning the same episode of Minucia, much in the same way he does elsewhere when quoting Vergilian verses or expressions without stating their origin.

General introduction to the epic genre in Rome. Translation with stylistic and philological commentary of Ennius’ Annales, vv. 34-50 Sk. (= 35-51 V., “The dream of Ilia”) and 175-79 Sk. (= 187-91 V. “the cutting of the forest”) and of Virgil's Aeneid, 4, 553-629; 6, 679-751; 10, 439-509; 12, 843-86.

The celebrated fragment of the 'shameless hussy' attributed to Naevius’ Tarentilla (74-9 Warmington) displays some similarities, both in the situation and in wording, to fr. 27 Kassel-Austin from Crates’ Games. Though with many uncertainties on both fragments and their actual relationship, the proposed parallel could be seen as a further clue of the underestimated influence of ancient Greek comedy on the first Latin comedy.

Latin words for ‘walls’ moenia and muri both derive from munio and are often used with particular relevance in latin literary tradition because of their connection with the legend of founding of Rome through ploughing a trench round it, a ritual described by Cato (orig. 1, 18) and Varro (ling. 5, 143) and still practiced until late antiquity for the foundation of coloniae. It is but completely ignored by Vitruvius who is concerned only to choose a healthful site for new settlements (1, 4). Words moenia and muri also recur within some sources of the myth of Romulus’ murder by Romulus or Celer (Livy 1, 7, 1-2; Virgil’ Aeneid; Ovid’s Fasti [4, 835 ff., but also 2, 133 f. and 3, 69 f.]: partially depending each other and
on Ennius’ Annales, 92 ff. Sk.) revealing different attitudes towards Romulus’ figure and its counterparts like Aeneas, Caesar and Augustus.

The high number of poetic citations contained in the surviving books of Varro’s "De lingua Latina" are relevant not only as mostly unique attestations of latin arcaic poetry, but also for the special place they hold within Varro’s linguistic treatise. Varro had the intention of going beyond the “second level of etymological explanation” ("secundus gradus etymologiae"), which was limited to poetic neologisms, and to deal with poetic words not necessarily as used only by poets but rather as found in poetic texts. Varro’s interest in poetic words seems to be stimulated in particular by their antiquity, but poetic texts, owing to the authority they possess, can be used also to explain words in common usage. The complete analysis of the citations shows that the drama is best represented, but there are also many epic quotations, and Varro cites prevalently from archaic or late-archaic authors. The poet most cited in "De lingua Latina" is without any doubt Ennius (Varro can ben considered one of the major supporters of the fame of Ennius), followed by Plautus, even from non-canonical comedies - not suprisingly, given Varro’s predilection for this author. Traces are brought out from the arrangement of the examples due to the alphabetical ordering of the titles of Plautus’ comedies and it is suggested the use of scholarly material that was unrelated to the problem of authenticity of the comedies. The poetic citations are mostly concentrated in Book 7, which is dedicated specifically to studying the etymology of poetic words; however many poetic citations are also found in the other two etymological books because of the non-exclusive use of certain words by the poets their authority and antiquity. It is noteworthy that not only the frequency but also the use and purpose of poetic citations differs between Books 5–6 and 7. Varro seems to have been influenced by the methods and results of previous generations of Roman philologists, but his purpose was clearly to "go Beyond" the methods of grammatica antiqua.

Nil intemptatum linquere. Sull’origine di un’espressione poetica (con qualche osservazione sul testo di Verg. Aen. 8.205 s.)

Martial 2.14.1 nil intemptatum Selius, nil linquit inausum is a grandiose hexameter, which presents three forms not elsewhere attested in the epigrammatist’s corpus (intemptatum, linquit, inausum). Critics consider the verse as a combination of two augustean intertexts (Hor. ars 285 nil intemptatum + Verg. Aen. 7.308 nil linquere inausum). This centonary way of quotation however doesn’t conform to Martial’s intertextual practice. In this paper is put forward the hypothesis that both Hor. ars 285 and Mart. 2.14.1 descend from Ennius’ Annals. It is then discussed the transmitted text at Verg. Aen. 8.206. There intemptatum, variant reading discarded by editors for intractatum, which has stronger manuscript support and looks difficilior, is worthy of a reconsideration in the light of a linguistic-stylistic analysis and of the possible Ennian origin of the expression.

This article pursues an understanding of what Cicero thought 'Italic' philosophy to be, and proceeds to develop a broader account of how Cicero's version compares with the surviving textual evidence and testimonia from the Hellenistic period of the philosophy of the 'Italic' philosophers, including the Lucanians 'Ocellus', 'Eccelus', and 'Aresas/Aesara', and the Rudian Ennius.  Collocation of 'Italic' with 'Pythagorean' philosophy of this era aids in building a more comprehensive view of what Hellenistic Pythagoreanism may have looked like.

Part I of this study argued that Aratus’s decision to base his LEPTĒ acrostic, which occurs during a discussion of moonlight (Phaen. 783-87), on Homer’s LEUKĒ acrostic (Il. 24.1-5) was motivated by the connection in Homer between the adjective λευκός and various types of light from the sky, including the light of dawn, which appears shortly after the acrostic (Il. 24.12), and the light of the moon (Il. 23.455). In Part II, I argue that a study of the reception of Aratus’s acrostic in Greek and Latin poetry reveals that many ancient poets solved the “riddle” of how Aratus’s acrostic relates to Homer’s.

Augustan poetry is perhaps the most classic of all European classics. Its literary
vision of gradual advance (back) to Golden-Age peace and prosperity has taken
center stage in the process of defining European humanism. Post-Augustan epic
poets like Lucan, however, also seem to doubt whether humanity can be taught
by letters. This has often been interpreted as anti-classicist and, hence, antihumanistic.
However, can the ideals of civilizing literature, in fact, be proven
wrong? Is there no other way to deal with the challenges of humanism than to give
in? A promising interpretive approach to this question is studying the specific
metapoetic potential of historical poetry. Literary characters of such poems can
‘realistically’ appear as readers; often, their success or failure may be directly
related to the literary education they show. This opens up a space for a particular
kind of intertextuality. In acutely reflecting the impact of their reference texts,
historical epic poems have made a distinctive contribution to the classification of
the classics, i.e., the defense of humanity.

By introducing a multifaceted approach to epic geography, the editors of the volume wish to provide a critical assessment of spatial perception, of its repercussions on shaping narrative as well as of its discursive traits and cultural contexts. Taking the genre-specific boundaries of Greco-Roman epic poetry as a case in point, a team of international scholars examines issues that lie at the heart of modern criticism on human geography. Modern and ancient discourse on space representations revolves around the nation-shaping force of geography, the gendered dynamics of landscapes, the topography of isolation and integration, the politics of imperialism, globalization, environmentalism as well as the power of language and narrative to turn space into place. One of the major aims of the volume is to show that the world of the Classics is not just the origin, but the essence of current debates on spatial constructions and reconstructions.

Conference presented in Catania during the Awards Ceremony of Certamen Latinum Aetnaeum in the Aula Magna of 'Galileo Galilei' State High School and Lyceum (Chairperson: Professor Gabriella Chisari) and in relation to the activities of the Associazione Italiana di Cultura Classica (Catania's Delegation "Q. Cataudella", the President of which is Professor Giovanni Salanitro) and of the Centrum Latinitatis Europae.

Il volume offre un commento ai frammenti delle tragedie latine di età repubblicana incentrate su diverse fasi del mito di Medea: la Medea exul di Ennio, il Medus di Pacuvio, la Medea sive Argonautae di Accio. Nell'introduzione vengono prese in esame questioni inerenti la ricezione e la fortuna del mito nel mondo romano e la sua riproposizione sulla scena. Ciascuna tragedia è analizzata sotto l'aspetto della tradizione testuale, della drammaturgia e del possibile rapporto con i modelli greci i frammenti vengono proposti in un nuovo ordine che tiene conto della loro possibile successione nello sviluppo originario della trama e il testo è corredato da una nuova traduzione e da un apparato critico e uno dei fontes. Il commento è incentrato sui contesti di trasmissione, sui problemi critico-testuali, su metrica, lingua, stile e strutturazione retorica dei versi dove possibile si tenta un confronto con il modello greco e si avanzano considerazioni su aspetti di drammaturgia e performance, al fine di un tentativo, pur sempre incerto, di ricostruzione dei drammi.